The Three Wishes fam believes it’s important to keep a positive mindset now more than ever. Whether you are living the WFH life or watching the kids run around, or both, finding ways to keep calm during this strange time will in turn keep spirits high and help cope with stress. 

We’ve listed out some of our favorite ways to keep our heads up during social distancing and hope they are beneficial to you as well! 

• Practice meditation or breathing exercises: Headspace and Calm are both amazing apps that allow you to choose from several meditation scenarios, such as different nature scenes. Try to incorporate this into your morning routine - it can start as a 5 minute session when you wake up, or as a quick midday work break. Taking deep breaths throughout the day seems silly, but it is a simple calming exercise that can help reduce stress. 

• Exercise indoors. There are plenty of at home workouts that can be done in the comfort of your living room. We think yoga is a great, low impact workout for all ages that keeps stress levels low and body movement high. Quick at home HIIT workouts are highly effective as well and are easy to find on TV, YouTube and Instagram. These workouts don’t need to be strenuous and can be as quick as a 7-minute abs YouTube video, or just simply stretching. Stretching in the morning naturally wakes up the body before you’ve even had a sip of coffee. Even if you’re working from home, try to get up from sitting at a desk and move your body every once in a while. Get your body moving!

• Create a hobbies bucket list. Is there anything you’ve always been interested in or wanted to learn? Now is a great time for those wishes to come to fruition. Learning to sew, play an instrument, or master Photoshop are a few of the many opportunities out there. We love Lynda.com, a website that has countless courses to choose from whether you’re looking to learn or sharpen a skill. 

• Connect with relatives and friends. Ask them how they are doing and share how you are feeling as well. Talking through uncertainties can help us feel more connected and in control. Try Facetime, Zoom, Skype or a simple phone call works too. This will limit the feeling of isolation and ultimately makes your community stronger.

• Start your own virtual book club. Gauge interest from friends and family about who may want to participate and then decide on a genre and take it from there. This can be a great way to keep yourself intellectually stimulated and will require a Zoom book discussion here and there once everyone is finished reading. 

• Keep your mind active with podcasts. These podcasts can be informative, or purely for the purpose of entertainment. Either way, there is definitely a podcast out there for everyone.

• Listen to music. Music can soothe the soul. Our favorite playlist on Spotify right now is Totally Stress Free, but Apple Music and Spotify alike have plenty of playlists for all music tastes. If it's of any interest, it may be fun to create your own playlist as it occupies time and leaves you with an exciting finished product you can share with your friends and family, or simply keep to yourself. 

• Clean out your closet. Fun? Maybe not. Productive? Definitely. Now would be a great time to play that playlist you found or created ;) the Marie Kondo approach really does work - it requires you to touch every article of clothing in your closet, and if you don’t feel a personal attachment to it, it might be time to let it go. 

• Limit screen time. Your phone probably already has a setting option right there for you. You can set limits on certain applications, ahem - social media. As important as it is to stay up to date on what’s going on with the world, it can’t hurt to take breaks from the news for mental health. 

• Play games. Board games, puzzles, sudoku, card games, all can be mindless, or simulating, but always engaging. Some of our favorites include Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Candyland and a kid-friendly favorite - Go Fish. 

• Practice self care. Whatever that means to you, if it's baking, doing a face mask, taking a bath, reading a book, doodling, journaling, drinking tea - do what makes you happy and helps you relax. Now that’s self care. 

We know this is temporary, so all we can do is control what we can… our attitudes (and appetite). Stay positive out there, friends.